. >> the united states condemns in the strongest terms this outrageous and shocking attack. >> reporter: speaking in the rose garden president barack obama condemned the attacks and killing of u.s. ambassador chris stevens. >> we jean all efforts to denigrate -- we reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, but there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. >> reporter: the president then went to the state departmento mourn with employees while his secretary of state said the libyan government was not involved. >> a free and stable libya is still in america's interest and security. and we will not turn our back on that. >> ambassador stevens died trying to get staffers out of the u.s. consulate while the demonstrations raged outside. while there attackers fired grenades and automatic weapons into the building. >> this attack is a horrible attack. we condemn it. we strongly condemn this kind of attack. >> governor mitt romney wednesday had to defend a statement criticizing the white house's handling of the growing protests. it was left to v